Stacked Yoga
Natalie Cosby, owner of Stacked Yoga, recalls being approached by a guy on the street one summer. “Girl, I can get you fit; I can help you get that right,” he said, gesticulating at her curvy figure. The Louisville, Ky. native smiled. “Okay, cool,” she replied sweetly. “But it is right. And I’m a yoga teacher.”
Encouraging body diversity in yoga (and smacking down stereotypes) is one of the objectives at Cosby’s Bed-Stuy studio. The name, however, isn’t really about a “stacked” body. “It’s also about building your foundation,” she says, explaining that her team welcomes people from all experience levels, including folks brand new to the mat. “People are constantly like, ‘I don’t do this because I’m not good at it.’ Well, how do you know you’re not good at it if you haven’t done it?”
Stacked Yoga studio is small and intimate — the better for personal connection between Cosby and her students. “This is a place where you can’t hide,” says Cosby, who addresses students by name as she adjusts their poses. “You can open up and be yourself. Nobody’s judging you. It’s not competitive. It’s a safe space for you to build yourself and really see what’s possible.”
She and other Stacked Yoga instructors encourage students to explore the various practices they offer, including Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga, among other yoga styles.
“You can open up and be yourself. Nobody’s judging you. It’s not competitive. It’s a safe space for you to build yourself and really see what’s possible.”
Cosby first came to yoga in a movement class 20 years ago, as part of her training as a then-actor. While holding a pose one day, she began crying.
“Yoga helped me release a lot of energy I was holding in my body; it helped me work through my own trauma and issues,” she says, adding that she deepened her practice over the years by becoming a teacher. “It’s important to let go of those worries, those stresses at our job, with our kids, in our relationships. I wanted to bring that to the community. Somehow the universe blessed me with this space, and here we are today.”
405 Tompkins Ave., 347-770-2735, stackedyoga.com
